“I need to be better in zone coverage with my hips and stuff like that,” Bailey said Thursday afternoon. “That’s something I can work on going forward. I can try to get more explosive and faster. The feedback I got is they like my instincts and how I get off blocks and how I get to the ball.

Purdue linebacker Markus Bailey (21) lines up against Boston College during the second half of an NCAA college football game in West Lafayette, Ind., Saturday, Sept. 22, 2018. Purdue defeated Boston College 30-13. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)(Photo: Michael Conroy, AP)

“But everyone says this - they don’t see me as the most gifted athlete on film. I need to work to improve that as much as I can.”

It wasn’t a foregone conclusion that the team's best player on defense would automatically return to the Boilermakers after submitting his name to the College Advisory Committee to gauge whether the Columbus, Ohio native should enter the draft.

The committee rates players on the following: potential first round, potential second round or neither.

“I already knew they were going to tell me to come back to school because everybody I talked to said I wasn’t projected in the first or second round, more like a third to a fifth-round guy,” Bailey said. “If I decided to leave, it wasn’t going to be based on that feedback.”

He discussed the situation with his family, exploring all of his options. But with what the Boilermakers have returning on the defensive side and the embarrassing Music City Bowl loss to Auburn, Bailey said coming back is the right move.

“I made the smartest decision, especially with everyone we have coming in this year and the recruiting class and after the bowl game, it left a bad taste in my mouth,” he said. “I want to do something special to help us leave Purdue on a high note.”

The 49-point loss to Auburn in the bowl game still lingers as the players prepare for offseason workouts but it won’t be a focal point heading into the 2019 season. Bailey has watched the film from the 63-14 loss.

“It was not a good performance but more than that it was embarrassing, not just for Purdue but for the Big Ten in general and there’s always the Big Ten versus the SEC implications,” Bailey said. “It was disheartening to go out there and have that performance when we were expected to play better than that.”

The team's leading tackler in 2018, though, shares the pain of the fan base, which overtook Nashville in the days leading up to the bowl game and made its presence known inside Nissan Stadium.

“I felt bad for our fans who have supported us throughout the season, from the ups and downs, and to end on that note, kudos to them. They stuck it out the entire time,” he said.

“It shows they still have faith in us and that’s a reason why I wanted to come back – to give something back to those fans that have supported me all of this time. I want to help Purdue get higher up in the Big Ten and the national level before I leave.”

The second-team All-Big Ten selection has plenty of reasons for optimism going into 2019.

Purdue returns nearly all of its front seven on the defensive side and adds a talented freshmen class, which can provide an immediate impact. He’s hopeful the defense will play closer to the 2017 level than it did last season.

“We have the potential to be good on defense because of all the guys we have coming back and the addition of the depth,” Bailey said. “You see all the big-time programs – they have so much depth on the D-line and at linebacker.

“The addition of the recruiting class and the experience will help us, and we’ll have a higher ceiling than we had last year. That’s all on potential but it’s going to be based on how hard we work this offseason and how much we improve in the spring and the summer.”

As those offseason workouts get underway, it appears more attention to detail will be the focus under the supervision of Justin Lovett, the program’s director of strength and conditioning.

Bailey called it a “bigger sense of urgency” this offseason where players need to improve their speed and explosiveness. The Boilermakers were clearly overmatched against the Tigers in the areas of athletic ability and strength and still have a long way to go to reach that level.

“When we had our meeting with coach Lovett, he was telling us a lot of the stuff they let slide last year – all the little things, being late to meetings, not going hard in the workouts and things like that – they’re not letting it fly,” Bailey said. “Maybe they’re treating it more like a business. If you’re not performing, they’re going to find somebody who is.”